Report says aviation still vulnerable

Tue., March 15, 2005

Lara Jakes Jordan Associated Press

Certification pace

WASHINGTON – While the pace of training and deployment of armed pilots on commercial flights has picked up, supporters of the program say the Bush administration is making it difficult for crews to take guns into the cockpit.

Pilots who monitor the program estimate that between 4,000 and 4,500 have been trained and deputized to carry guns since the Federal Flight Deck Officer program began in April 2003. That total is about three times as many as a year ago, yet a fraction of the 95,000 pilots who fly for U.S. airlines.

David Mackett, president of the Airline Pilots Security Alliance, a group formed to lobby for guns in the cockpit, said that tens of thousands of his colleagues are interested in the program.

Mackett contends that the Transportation Security Administration isn't moving to get substantially more pilots trained to carry guns because it has never really wanted the program.

TSA spokesman Mark Hatfield disputed that, saying agency chief David Stone fully backs the effort and that procedures have been changed to more quickly get pilots into the program.

Hatfield said he couldn't disclose which procedures had been adjusted.

The exact number of armed pilots is classified. No pilot has fired a weapon, either intentionally or accidentally, while on duty, according to TSA spokeswoman Andrea McCauley.

The TSA initially opposed the program, worrying that introducing a weapon to a commercial flight was dangerous and that other security enhancements since Sept. 11, 2001, made it unnecessary. The agency endorsed the idea when it was clear Congress was behind it.

The Bush administration wants to spend $7 million more on arming pilots in 2006 than the $25.3 million this year.

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The nation’s aviation system remains vulnerable to attacks by al Qaeda and other terrorists who may be targeting noncommercial aircraft and helicopters, according to a government report.

Officials said the report by the Homeland Security Department and the FBI concludes that commercial airlines also remain susceptible to attack despite billions of dollars worth of security investments.

Moreover, members of al Qaeda are believed to be examining and testing U.S. security systems for weaknesses, officials said.

The confidential report, dated Feb. 25, reflects what officials have long said: that beefing up security in one sector would inevitably prompt terrorists to target other areas that might not be under the same level of scrutiny.

However, the report, drafts of which have been circulating since late last year, is the first to pull the intelligence together in a single package, officials said.

The report was first reported Sunday evening by the New York Times on its Internet site.

More than $12 billion has been spent on explosives detectors, armored cockpit doors, screeners, air marshals and other aviation security systems since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. President Bush has proposed giving the Transportation Security Administration $5.6 billion in 2006 – $2 billion of which for airline passenger screening and $1.45 billion for airline baggage screening.

But a report by congressional investigators in December found that TSA “has primarily focused on strengthening the security of commercial aviation.” That report noted that TSA doesn’t understand the risks posed by small private planes, fails to issue meaningful threat information to general aviation airports and can’t make sure charter airlines and flight schools comply with security regulations.

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